JERSEY CITY AND BEYOND - The city will officially welcome the Golden Door International Film Festival with a brief ceremony at City Hall on Friday, Oct. 5. The event will include appearances from actor and festival founder Bill Sorvino and some of the directors whose films will be screened during the festival.

This city welcome will get underway at 11 a.m. at 280 Grove St. in the Rotunda.

The festival, which is being co-sponsored by the Hudson Reporter, officially gets underway on Thursday, Oct. 11 and continues with four days of screenings of independent movie shorts and features from professional filmmakers from across the world. Movies included in the festival come from home-grown Jersey City directors and from filmmakers from as far away as Japan, Germany, Australia, Taiwan, and India.

Over the four days, over 50 films will be shown including "Trouble with Cali," starring Paul Sorvino; "Nrityagram: For the Love of Dance," a documentary which tells the story of the Nrityagram Dance Village; "Pollination," a short film about human behavior, starring actor/director Federico Castelluccio; "Surviving Family" directed by Jersey City native Mara Lesemann; and "Union Square," a Nancy Savoca directed drama co-starring Mira Sorvino, Tammy Blanchard, Mike Doyle, Michael Rispoli, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Patti LuPone.

The festival also includes screenings of three movies that were made by Jersey City high school students on Saturday, Oct. 13 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Five Corners Branch Library. The festival concludes Sunday, Oct. 14 an awards ceremony at the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit www.goldendoorfilmfestival.com.